Active Enjoyment - Metal Gear Solid 2 Vita

What’s up my fellow 1uppers? Well, aside from me being nearly permanently tethered to my Vita for the past few weeks, and writing as usual in preparation for my November book launch, there have been a few things that I really wanted to discuss with all of you. Before I heard about Little Big Planet breaking its street date for the Vita earlier this week I was knee deep in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty on my shiny OLED handheld behemoth. I wanted to get through the game one more time before I went on to greener pastures because it had been awhile. I wrote a pretty epic overview of Metal Gear Solid 3 for the Vita during 1up’s Metal Gear retrospective a couple months back that I was happy enough to see featured on their cover story page.

I am taking this blog in a bit of a different direction though. Yes, I did all of these screenshots myself once again, (Quick side note. I do all of my Vita screenshots on my blog by myself since it is so easy and only takes a few more minutes to pop them onto a hosting site) but I think one of the most significant differences this time is that I am only about half way through the game. You see, this blog will be coming to you in parts, kind of like my Hot Shot’s Golf World Invitational blogs come to you in progress reports. My gaming world is a busy place right now, and at its core are a multitude of games. Metal Gear Solid 2 is one of those. It’s a shame it is so good because I could really use putting a game down right about now. No such luck my fellow 1upper. Onward!

Kojima’s beautiful series direction is quite brilliantly on full display here Loading up Metal Gear Solid 2 after playing the brilliant Snake Eater recently on my Vita brought about a few questions in my mind. My favorite game in the series is unquestionably the third game chronicling the origins of Big Boss. Metal Gear Solid 2 was never bad in my mind, but I never really played through it with a concerted effort to understand it. I remember playing Metal Gear Solid 2 in high school when it came out, leaving me more often confused that enlightened. Not only did the trophies call my name for the game, but the game itself I think was never given a fair shake by me. Maybe after playing through nearly every title in the series I would understand it better now that I have a little bit of age on me.

Solid Snake is one bad mofo One of the first things that jumped out at me while playing through Metal Gear Solid 2 after probably close to 10 years was how much better Metal Gear Solid 3 looked. I understand that it came out earlier in the lifecycle of the PS2, but with the update to full HD running on the Vita it is pretty clear at the level of effort that went into Snake Eater. Quite naturally the game does not look bad by any stretch of the imagination, but it doesn’t look quite as good as you would necessarily assume after playing the remake of Snake Eater. Graphics are not everything in a game quite naturally. There is still all the bird poop that makes you slip when you run over it, still the photos of the lady’s tagged in random lockers and dining quarters. The only difference is that they are now HD which is a welcome bonus.

Raiden is not as bad as I remember him I remember the exact opposite of an orgasm happening all over the world when gamers learned that they would not be playing as Solid Snake for the majority of the game. The funny thing is that I found Raiden to be a bit of an arrogant, pompous little jerk all of those years ago. Now on the other hand, I think the exact opposite. I really dig Raiden. Maybe it is because I am playing through the game with some headphones now opposed to playing alongside my brother back in the day. We used to discuss how much we disliked Raiden. We used to talk shit like the websites of the day were. You know, I think I understand Raiden a lot more now though. True, he was much more badass in MGS 4, and I am seriously looking forward to MGR: Revengeance, but this is literally the origin of another one of Kojima’s iconic characters.

A Quick Experiment: ICE Not a lot of gamers that did not pay close attention to the coverage of MGS2:SOL around the time of its launch are aware of some of its neatest and coolest little highlights. Kojima wanted to ensure that the world of MGS2 felt believable and real. This resulted in the game not only having some of the very first dynamic glass systems, (Where glass cracks and shatters depending upon where it is shot) But on an even less significant level, ice buckets can be shot. If you pay attention the Ice actually melts over time. Need proof? Here check this out:Before:After:

Fatman is one of my least favorite bosses of the series You know there is something that is up when you have to think about how you fought a boss in one of the MGS games. The majority of the bosses in this series of games are memorable and make you have a very vivid memory of how your defeated them. I can tell you the location of each boss from MGS3, Metal Gear Solid, and even MGS4 for the most part. This game has some stand out boss battles that I do remember, but after fighting Fatman, it was clear why I forgot him all those years ago. He was super simple to defeat. It really only took me about maybe one minute. Who knows, maybe less? One thing that I do know is that he is not a worthy character for the series and felt like more of a story tie to a couple characters on the Big Shell in an attempt to ground the story on an action/reaction kinda basis.

Talking about The Big Shell and Bosses Fortune and Vamp and both excellent characters in Metal Gear Solid 2. I really have dug getting to know both of them again and on top of that, their interpersonal story is something that I either neglected to pay much attention to in my younger years, or simply forgot. This is currently one of the main reasons that I keep coming back to the game. I want to learn more about these unique characters. I also wanted to touch on the Big Shell setting. I really like the colors used all over the Big Shell. It almost gives the game this modern, almost even Portal type feel without really going there too much. If MGS3 had superior graphics, MGS2 has superior use of color sensibilities. I dig the bold oranges, the nearly texture free whites and grays, and even the odd, almost Ico like way that Kojima pulled off Raiden’s hair.

On my next Metal Gear Solid 2 Progress Report I will dig a further into my thoughts on the game next time I write about it. There is a pretty damn high probability it will have been beaten by then, so look forward to some additional insight like how the transfaring mechanics work in comparison the MGS 3 for the Vita, and as always, a slew of new screenshots highlighting parts of the game that you may or may not remember. I am over 1,300 words into this little labor of love and will have to save a little bit for next time.

Distractions distractions

I know what you mean. After copping Little Big Planet Vita it is hard to find time to play this sadly. Once I beat LBP Vita's story (which should he fairly soon) I am going to come back to this one and finish it off. Thanks for digging the blog. I already have more blogs writen and ready to post. I just have to sort out screenshots and pictures.